Welcome to Pine Point

A multimedia portrait of the disappeared Canadian mining settlement of Pine Point. The town was built in the 1960s, but closed down with the mine when the stocks of zinc and lead ore ran out in the late 1980s: literally torn down and wiped off the map. It existed exactly long enough for one generation to live there. This documentary by Michael Simons, who grew up in the vicinity of Pine Point, and Paul Shoebridge revolves around memories and the objects that keep these alive. Archetypal ways of dealing with your own past are examined through the cases of four former inhabitants. Kimberley Feodoroff, alias Kim Kastle, was the "beauty" who was always destined to leave the town, while brothers Lyle and Wayne Hryniuk were doomed to work down in the mine. Then there's former bully Richard Cloutier, who turned out to be the custodian of the town's collective memory. The makers tell their story in text - the project started out as an idea for a book - with a collage of material from and about Pine Point in the background: photos and home movies made by residents, newspaper clippings, excerpts from diaries, and yearbooks from the high school. For IDFA DocLab, filmmakers Michael Simmons and Paul Shoebridge will create a live version of in the cinema.